Sam Mendes to Make Self-Penned WW1 Drama 1917 for Amblin
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oscar winning director Sam Mendes brings his World War I film, 1917, to Amblin Partners. Mendes, who wrote the original script with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, will direct and produce the film. Pippa Harris, Mendes’ producing partner at Neal Street Productions, will also produce.
“I couldn’t be happier to be back working with Amblin and Steven Spielberg again, alongside Donna Langley and all at Universal. I’ve been working on this script for over a year, so it’s very exciting to start making the movie itself a reality.”
Production is targeting an April 2019 start for a US release in December 2019 through Amblin’s distribution partner, Universal Pictures.
1917 marks a reunion for Mendes and the Steven Spielberg-led Amblin Partners. The British director made his first feature, the Oscar winning American Beauty, under the DreamWorks Pictures label, followed by two other productions – Road to Perdition and Revolutionary Road. Mendes most recently directed the last two movies in the James Bond franchise, Spectre and Skyfall.
Said Sam Mendes: “I couldn’t be happier to be back working with Amblin and Steven Spielberg again, alongside Donna Langley and all at Universal. I’ve been working on this script for over a year, so it’s very exciting to start making the movie itself a reality.”
Said Steven Spielberg: “Our company has been a home for Sam since his first film. I am so happy to have him back here in his old room spinning new stories – especially this hugely daring and ambitious new movie.”
CAA Media Finance packaged the film and brokered the deal.
About Amblin Partners
Amblin Partners is a content creation company, led by Steven Spielberg, that develops and produces films using the Amblin, DreamWorks and Participant Media banners and includes Amblin TV, a longtime leader in quality programming. The company’s investment partners include: Participant Media, Reliance Entertainment, Entertainment One (eOne), Alibaba Pictures and Universal Pictures.
About Neal Street Productions
Neal Street Productions was formed in 2003 by Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris and Caro Newling, and Nicolas Brown joined in 2013 to work across the film and TV portfolio. The company has been successful in film, theatre and television with hit movies including Revolutionary Road, Jarhead and Starter for 10.
Their diverse television slate includes the award-winning Stuart A Life Backwards, with Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch, three series of Penny Dreadful starring Josh Hartnett, Eva Green, Timothy Dalton and Rory Kinnear, and the hugely successful Call the Midwife. The show regularly gains over 10m viewers, it is the UK’s most watched TV drama series and it has been voted the Best Drama of the 21st Century in the BFI & Radio Times Festival Audience Poll. Neal Street also produced the critically acclaimed and award-winning The Hollow Crown - a series of Shakespeare films for the BBC/PBS - starring Ben Whishaw, Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons, and a second series; The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes and Sophie Okonedo. Other TV projects include Britannia, a major new original drama series written by Jez Butterworth starring Kelly Reilly, Zoe Wanamaker and David Morrissey, for Sky and Amazon, and contemporary thriller, Informer, starring Paddy Considine, Bel Powley and Nabhaan Rizwan which will air on BBC and Amazon in 2018.
On the theatre side, current productions include The Lehman Trilogy directed by Sam Mendes starring Simon Russell Beale which will be opening at the National Theatre in July 2018, The Ferryman written by Jez Butterworth, which, following its sell-out run and 5* reviews at both the Royal Court and the Gielgud Theatre in London will open at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway in October 2018, The Moderate Soprano at the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End, and Shrek The Musical which is touring across the UK throughout 2018/19. Neal Street Productions is an All3Media company, All3Media is owned jointly between Discovery Communications and Liberty Global.
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